No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 

— Joshua 1:5-6 NKJV

Oh yeah. As I read this my chest is starting to stick out a little bit; my back is starting to straighten up and now I’m starting to stand erect, because God says you can be strong and courageous when facing a giant mission because…

God is With You.

Just let those four words sink into your mind for a moment. Maybe you just want to repeat it to yourself over and over again till it sticks. God is with me. You see it’s not about you, your strength or your ability. God is with you.

As David stood facing the giant, Goliath, he stood bold and fearless, because he knew that God was with Him. That giant was about to go down! You see when you know whose on your side, your giants look smaller. What your mind focuses on gets bigger in your mind. So focus on your giant God!

40 years earlier, when the children of Israel had the opportunity to enter Canaan, they were terrified in unbelief that they could take possession of the land for fear of the giants in the land. But then and now, as they are about to take the land, if you could fly up above the conversation in the camp of Israel and lad over into the enemy camp and hear their conversation, it would sound like this. “We are toast! What are we going to do? This is the God that shut down the army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea! Just look at their Giant God in the midst of the pillar of fire! We are doomed!” There not freaking out about Israel. Their freaking out about the God that’s with Israel! He is with you when you face obstacles. God is bigger than what scares you. God is with you!

When talking about the church, Jesus puts it this way in Matthew 16:18,

…on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

— Matthew 16:18 NKJV

The rock that Jesus built His church on is the confession that He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus is the Rock, the firm foundation of the church! But somehow, growing up, I thought the rest of the verse was saying that the forces of hell would not prevail or break down the gates of the church. In other words the church was standing on the Rock, Jesus Christ, in a defensive posture against the Enemy. Hear me, that is not what Jesus is saying in this verse! He is saying the exact opposite! It’s the gates of hell that will not prevail against the church busting in and snatching souls out of the kingdom of Satan! The church is in an offensive posture. You see, because you are in Christ, where ever you show up, wherever your foot touches, the Kingdom of God has arrived and Satan must fall! The enemy forces are freaking out, because God is with you.

You thought what God did in the past was something? Joshua, you haven’t seen anything yet! Hey, let’s pay our respects to the past. Moses was a big deal. But now God is raising up the Joshua generation to do what Moses failed to do. He promises that as He was with Moses, so He will be with you. As He did mighty things through the heroes of the previous generation, so He will do mighty things through you!

The fact that He has even brought you to this territory shows His faithfulness to His promises. The fact that we are even here in Vienna, at this stage of our story should let you know that God is faithful to His word and is about ready to do something awesome through you! He is with us. Remember the promise of Jesus, as He was about to ascend to heaven, in Matthew 28:19-20,

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

— Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV

The context of the promise is that as you are going about life, in your spaces of influence He has given you for the Kingdom, make disciples, for He will always be with you! He is with you as you live out your purpose, which is to make disciples. Jesus is with you to accomplish the mission. It’s called the great co-mission, because you are co-laboring with Christ. He is doing it with you, through you and goes before you. He is with you.

Ok, so now that we’re feeling encouraged to go forward and win the entire city for Christ, God says, “Wait a minute Joshua. Before you go, there’s still one more thing you need to know if you’re going to be successful.” Are you ready to discover this secret to success? God reveals this juicy secret beginning in verse 7…